After considering more than 35 Christmas tree stands and testing five models since 2012, we believe the Krinner Tree Genie XXL is the best option for your tree—and that’s been our conclusion every year we’ve done this guide.

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A unique design makes clamping a tree in the Krinner far easier than any kind of stand we’ve found. The Krinner grips the tree trunk with five claws that you tighten by stepping on a ratcheting foot pedal, instead of turning a set of bolts into the bottom of the tree trunk, like nearly every other tree stand. This means average-size and smaller trees, around 6 to 7 feet tall, can be set up with just one person. No other tree stand does anything like it. The Krinner can handle a wide range of trunk diameters (even very small ones), it’s extremely stable and it’s attractive, and the enclosed 2½-gallon reservoir has a gauge to show you its water level. Priced at around $100, the Krinner is not cheap, but it’s so superior to the competition, we feel it’s worth the investment.

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We also like the Cinco C-144E Express, which remains a reliable backup choice after several years of considering new models. It’s stable, and its ample 3-gallon reservoir has an overflow basin to catch drips. The downside is that the tree is secured by four cumbersome hand-twisted bolts, but they do have a quick-release—this speeds up the process considerably and sets this stand apart from the many other similar designs. It’s not as easy to use as the Krinner, and not as versatile, with a design that accepts only tree trunks larger than 3.5 inches in diameter (that’s a tree about 6½ feet or taller). Last, this stand is quite large; if you’re planning on getting a smaller tree, you can step down to the Cinco C-148E.

The research

Why you should trust us

Wirecutter has been researching and testing Christmas tree stands since 2012. In that time, we’ve thoroughly vetted more than 35 stands and done hands-on testing with five. We’ve also read everything we can about Christmas tree stands, from a comparison in the The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) to a Christmas-themed blog called Miss Bee’s Christmas Tree (although not a professional reviewer, Miss Bee is pretty serious about tree stands). We’ve also scoured user reviews on the websites of several major retailers and perused a variety of “best of” lists (most of which, alas, rely mainly on those same websites, with little, if any, testing.)

How we picked

We went to a local nursery to test four of the most promising stands, using two trees of different sizes. Photo: Ed Grabianowski

We wanted a Christmas tree stand that could serve two primary functions: Keep the tree standing upright, and keep it watered.

A good stand can hold the tree up and make it look straight, even if the tree itself is a bit crooked. To create stability, the stand needs a heavy base to lower the tree’s center of gravity and keep it balanced. For size, it should have an opening wide enough to accommodate a roughly 4- to 6-inch trunk diameter—that’s the ballpark thickness of your average Christmas tree, which has a height of 6 or 7 feet, according to the National Christmas Tree Association.

Second, it needs a sizeable reservoir of water to keep the tree moist and “alive” (or at least prevent it from drying out and losing all its needles) for as long as possible. A dry tree is not only ugly and messy, it’s a fire hazard. Though this is rare, it does happen—according to the National Fire Protection Association, between 2009 and 2013, Christmas trees were the source of an average of 210 home fires each year, according to a National Fire Protection Association. So how much water is enough? The National Christmas Tree Association notes that, “Generally, a tree can use up to one quart of water per day for each inch of stem diameter.” That’s 1½ gallons each day for a 6-inch-diameter tree. Larger water capacity is always better, so you’re not constantly worried about watering the tree.

We used this 1½-gallon water requirement to eliminate a fair number of Christmas tree stands. We’ve combined that research with customer reviews and rankings on the Amazon and Home Depot sites to come up with a total of 36 Christmas tree stands for consideration since December 2012. Of those, we’ve tested five.

How we tested

To test the stability of the stands, we used twine and a force gauge to pull on the trees until they tipped over. Our top pick maxed out the gauge and actually bent the metal hook. Photo: Ed Grabianowski

In 2013, we took our top four stands to Adams Nurseries in Lancaster, New York, where the staff members generously loaned us a pair of trees to set up and take down. Both of our test trees were Douglas firs, one of the most common Christmas trees sold in the US. One was 6 feet 8 inches tall with a trunk diameter of 3½ inches, and the other was 8 feet 4 inches tall with a trunk diameter of 5½ inches—a fairly typical span between large and small, which let us gauge how well each stand could handle most people’s trees.

As we set up each tree with each stand (in the pouring rain), we noted how difficult it was to get the tree into the stand, position it, and fasten the tree inside. We also looked at how hard it was to make adjustments to straighten the tree. We then filled the stand’s reservoir with 1½ gallons of water (or the stand’s maximum, if it was less than this amount), and noted how difficult it was to fill, and how likely it was to overflow or spill onto your floor.

Finally, we tied a length of twine to each tree, in each stand, at a consistent spot about a third of the distance from the top. Using a force gauge (a simple cylinder with a calibrated spring), we pulled on each tree to see how much force was required to make it tip over. Our gauge maxed out at 50 Newtons, which anyone with a physics background can tell you is not a lot of force—but, in most cases it was enough to tip over our test trees and not far beyond what you’d cause with an accidental bump into the tree. Only the exceptionally sturdy stands could resist it, and the exercise objectively helped us identify the best products in our test.

Since our original testing, we’ve evaluated one other stand, the Tree Genie XXL Deluxe, which is so similar to our main pick that we didn’t feel the need to put it through our stability testing.

To prevent bias in favor of any type of stand or tree size, a writer who had never set up or maintained a live Christmas tree conducted the original tests on our stands.

Buying Options

Heading into Christmas 2017, we feel the Krinner Tree Genie XXL is still the best Christmas tree stand available. With a unique, easy-to-use, and quick tree-clamping mechanism that operates by a foot pedal, this was the only stand we tested that we could set up without an assistant. It can handle a wide variety of tree sizes, has a large 2½-gallon water reservoir, and it’s sturdy—attempting to tip it over almost broke our test equipment. It’s also the most aesthetically pleasing stand we could find.

The most significant factor that sets the Krinner apart is the unique fastening mechanism that’s far simpler and easier to use than that of any other tree stand available. You simply set the tree in the stand, press several times on a foot pedal, and then five very sturdy plastic claws, looped together with a heavy-gauge metal wire, tighten down against the tree trunk to set it in position. The final pushes on the pedal snug up the claws and hold the tree securely. A sliding red button on the pedal locks it in place, but if you need to make further adjustments, it’s really no big deal to unlock the claws and reset the tree. (A slightly more expensive Deluxe version even rings a bell when the tree is secured.)

Securing a tree in the Krinner can be a one-person job. You hold the tree upright and pump on the ratcheting foot pedal until the tree is secured. Photo: Ed Grabianowski

The Krinner’s unique fastening mechanism is far simpler and easier to use than any other tree stand.

We tested the Krinner on two trees: a 6-foot-8 tree, which we put up unassisted, and a bigger 8-foot-4 tree, which was easier with a second person. As long as you can heave the tree into the Krinner’s open jaws, you may be able to manage it on your own. This is a huge distinction between the Krinner and basically every other stand, which forces you to get down on your belly to tighten individual bolts. Even for a smaller tree, that’s nearly impossible to do without help.

The Krinner’s five claws can be adjusted to secure tree trunks ranging from 7 inches wide to only 1 inch. Photo: Ed Grabianowski

One of the Krinner’s other major advantages is the ability to handle a wide range of trunk sizes. With the claws cranked all the way down, this stand will hold a tree with a trunk as small as 1 inch in diameter. The maximum trunk diameter it will accept is 7 inches. That gives you a lot of flexibility on tree sizes. When testing on our smaller tree, with its 3.5-inch diameter trunk, some other stands’ screws could barely extend far enough to meet the trunk (and they wouldn’t work with a tree any smaller than that).

Once the tree is installed, it’s hard to overemphasize how stable this stand is. In our stability testing, the Krinner Tree Genie XXL was able to max out our force gauge at 50 Newtons when testing with both small and tall trees. The tree stand even outlasted the test materials: We bent the hook on the force gauge trying to get it to tip over, and at one point we snapped the twine we had tied to the tree. The stand itself weighs 18 pounds, which you might expect to make it stable, but it actually has a smaller footprint than most of the other stands. That’s another advantage: It’s easier to store during the non-Christmas months.

The Krinner has a 2½-gallon water reservoir. Of the tested stands, only the runner-up Cinco is larger, with a 3-gallon capacity. But 2½ gallons is plenty large: A tree of roughly 6 to 8 feet in height has a trunk diameter of about 4 to 6 inches, and will usually take in 1½ gallons or less per day. In fact, you should even be able to relax a little about watering, as you may not need to each day. A gauge on the tank will tell you what the water level is between fillings.

Because most of the basin is enclosed, it’s hard to see the water level. A handy water-level gauge makes checking it easy, though. Photo: Ed Grabianowski

The Krinner was well-regarded in a Wall Street Journal (subscription required) roundup of Christmas tree stands back in 2006. Amazon customers are similarly impressed. Reviewer Slots says, “It makes putting up a tree so easy and actually enjoyable … It also eliminated any necessary adjustments to straighten the tree once it was in the stand.”

User Amazon Queen found the Tree Genie much easier to use than screw-in varieties: “For years I’ve bothered with the wobbly screw-in versions… ‘a little to the left, a little to the right.’ We put the tree into the stand, pumped the arms in and the tree stood straight and firm the first time in under 1 minute!” Other reviews consistently praise the stand for simplifying a difficult task, working quickly, preventing arguments, and otherwise saving Christmas. Robert Smith summed up the feelings of many reviewers with his “Marriage Saver” post, saying, “I’ve been putting up trees for 10 years, and this year is the first time my wife and I haven’t wanted to kill each other half way through.”

One last feature worth mentioning: This is the most attractive tree stand of everything we tested. If you want to set up a tree on your porch or some other area where a tree skirt isn’t practical, it will still look nice.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

As with most tree stands, watering the tree’s reservoir is still a chore, and you have to be careful when filling it. The majority of the Krinner’s reservoir is enclosed, and there is only a small space near the trunk for watering. You could make the case that this narrow opening has advantages—pets will not be able to easily drink from it and gifts are less likely to fall into it. The gauge that tells you how much water is in the stand also has a very clear “Stop” indicator that shows when you’ve filled it enough. However, there is no overflow tray, a feature some other stands have that we’d like to have seen here.

Many negative reviews mention the same problem: water leaking from the base. This is obviously a huge flaw, but it’s rare. Most of these problems seem to be happening between seasons, so if you’re taking a used stand out of storage, fill it once on your driveway or sidewalk and watch for a leak before you set it up indoors.

To a toddler, the curiosity factor of the lever and the bright red lock toggle is off the charts.

The other major complaint is a loss of tension in the ratchet and claw mechanism, which can let a tree topple over. Other Amazon users have experienced failure of the locking mechanism. According to the manufacturer, this problem can be eliminated by using a small padlock to secure the lock toggle in place (you could also use a little bolt).If you have these or any other major problems, the Krinner is backed by a five-year warranty.

To prevent the stand’s claws from coming loose, the foot pedal can be locked in place by sliding the red button down. A padlock can also be inserted through the hole to keep it from being accidentally unlocked. Photo: Rik Paul

Another reason to add a padlock is to prevent a child from accidentally releasing the tree from the stand. To a toddler, the curiosity factor of the lever and the bright red lock toggle is off the charts, and it doesn’t take much to shift the toggle and press the lever up, causing the tree to topple over.

A final drawback: The Krinner is expensive. At about $90, it is definitely on the high end of the tree stand price scale, but it’s significantly better than all the other stands we tested. We feel its multiple advantages make it worth the price—and a lot of the positive Amazon reviews are written by customers who hesitated to spend so much but ultimately felt it was worth it.

Long-term test notes

Wirecutter senior editor Erica Ogg’s parents, Steve and Debi Ogg, tested the Krinner for a year and they reported that it was “probably the best Christmas tree stand we’ve owned.” Steve was especially impressed with the easy setup, saying, “I’ve never been able to set up a Christmas tree by myself. I’ve always had to have someone else hold it up, while I’m down there [trying to screw in bolts].” With the Krinner, “I could hold it in and use the foot ratchet thing, didn’t need anyone else.”

Debi liked that the Krinner was “very solid” but said that the 18-pound weight made it, “a bit cumbersome” moving it up and down the stairs when taking it out and putting it away for the season. She also noted that filling the Krinner with water “was easier than previous stands we have owned, but not necessarily easy, since you have to practically lay on the floor to find the fill zone. But definitely not difficult, and it held a lot more water [than other stands], as I remember, which is nice.”

Erica tested the similar Krinner Tree Genie XXL Deluxe (which has the same water reservoir) and said that, “the well is so huge that you just don’t have to water as much in general as you would with most tree stands.”

Wirecutter’s president and general manager, David Perpich, who calls himself a “Christmas tree obsessive,” has used both of our picks. He says the Krinner is a dream if you want to set up a tree by yourself.

Buying Options

For a solid stand at a lower price, we like the Cinco C-144E Express. The Cinco is similar to the Krinner in terms of stability, and both maxed out our force gauge. It uses a traditional bolt-tightening method, which is nowhere near as easy to set up as the Krinner, but a quick-release on the bolts makes the Cinco’s operation faster and easier than that of similarly priced competition. Think of this as a particularly good version of your basic tree stand—you still have to crawl underneath to secure the trunk while someone helps hold the tree from the top, but at least you’ll spend a little less time down there.

The quick-release is one feature that really set the Cinco apart from the rest of the lower-priced stands. You know the design: Four bolts tighten against the tree trunk to stabilize it, and the bolts can thread in to grip a tree with a diameter as little as a 3½ inches. Cinco’s improvement to this standard system is that each screw has a release lever so it can be quickly snugged up against the trunk and then tightened for only the final turns. You won’t need to lie on your belly and slowly spin the entire bolt toward the tree (four times in a row).

Comparing the Cinco with our pick, Wirecutter general manager David Perpich actually finds the Cinco’s bolt-tightening work to be a benefit, as he likes to have a lot of control when positioning the tree. “My take,” he says, “Krinner is easier to stand up solo. Cinco is easier to make adjustments. If someone is doing this solo and ‘good enough’ works, the Krinner is a dream. If someone has a partner or wants the ability to tweak and get it just right, Cinco is way better.” We’d add the Cinco is likely to be better able to compensate for crooked trees or trees with knots or other odd shapes at the point where it attaches to the stand.

Think of this as a particularly good version of your basic tree stand.

The Cinco has a big 3-gallon reservoir and an added overflow basin to catch drips (which the Krinner lacks). Its reservoir is more exposed than the Krinner’s, which makes it easier to fill, but some pets could treat it like a giant pine-scented water dish in your living room. This stand is made of a hard plastic, like the Krinner, and they both seem tough enough for the job. We should mention that durability of the stands didn’t seem like an issue in any of the options we tested—the bigger variable was the stability, and that’s what set the Cinco and our main pick apart.

This stand is sold at Home Depot, where its reviews are solid. The majority of the feedback is positive, with some saying this is the best stand they’ve ever used. The few negatives focus mostly on the overall bulkiness of the stand.

As for flaws, the Cinco is quite large. Huge, in fact. At about 2 feet in diameter and roughly 10 inches tall, it takes up some real estate and smaller tree skirts won’t be able to cover it. Because it has the capacity to hold a 12-foot tree, the screws on the Cinco don’t extend far enough to grip a tree with a trunk diameter less than 3½ inches (which, in our test, was about a 6-foot-8 tree). If you’re planning on having a smaller tree, Cinco also offers the C-148E, which has the same quick-release system, but is just sized down a little.

The competition

We had hands-on time with the Tree Genie XXL Deluxe, which matches our main pick spec for spec with a couple of exceptions. First, there is a bell on the end of the foot pedal that dings and locks the pedal automatically when the stand’s claws are fully tightened. Also, the claws on the XXL Deluxe loosen on the tree one pedal lift at a time, instead of releasing all at once. These are nice features, but they’re not necessary, and they add about $10 to the total cost.

Our testing also included the Contech Enterprises TS9405 Indoor Steel Christmas Tree Stand and the Swivel Straight (also known as the 1-Minute Tree Stand). Neither was as stable as the Tree Genie XXL or the Cinco. The Swivel Straight started to tip at 30 Newtons of pulling force, and the Contech tipped at 25 Newtons. Performance was similar with large and small trees. Both the Swivel Straight and Contech stands have 1½-gallon reservoirs—sufficient, but the smallest among tested models.

The Swivel Straight stand in particular had our hopes up because it lets you adjust the angle of the tree by pressing a foot pedal and turning the tree on a large ball joint. But the initial setup proved more of a hassle than any other method: A separate sleeve fits over the tree’s trunk while it’s lying down, and you secure it with screw-down clamps. Then you fit the sleeve and tree together into the base. The frustrating setup, along with the lack of stability, outweighed the otherwise cool design.

The Black & Decker Smart Stand has a unique design that includes three sharp metal blades that grip a tree’s trunk after it’s been dropped into the stand, with no need to tighten anything. But it’s gotten a lot of negative reviews on Amazon. The Steel Welded Large Tree Stand and the Resin Tree Stand, like so many others, hold the tree with four bolts that must be threaded the entire way in. The water reservoir is also much smaller than those of the Krinner and Cinco. The Holiday Time Christmas Tree Stand is inexpensive but looks flimsy and also supports the tree with simple bolts.

We looked at, but didn’t test, the Santa’s Solution Steel Extreme. This expensive stand accommodates trunks up to 7 inches in diameter and has a 2-gallon water well. The name is quite apt: The Steel Extreme is imposing, but it still uses only the traditional bolt design. If you can spend this much on a stand, save a few bucks and get the much simpler Krinner.

We dismissed the Iron Mountain Welded, which had decent reviews but only a 90-day warranty. After hours of research, we couldn’t figure out who made the stand or where you’d go for service if you had a problem.